Thursday's attack was designed to be an act of war -- well beyond the more routine rocket attacks. This report illustrates the coordinated assault that Israeli forces faced more fully than prior coverage. "IDF officer: Terrorists planned an abduction attack," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post, August 21:
The terrorists who infiltrated Israel on Thursday and carried out the attacks near Eilat were heavily armed, wore suicide bomb belts and came with handcuffs, an indication they planned to abduct a soldier, deputy commander of the Sagi Brigade along the Egyptian border said on Saturday.
They hoped to follow Hamas in its abduction of Gilad Shalit (still a prisoner after 5 years), and Hizballah in their capture of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose bodies were later swapped for release of the murderer Samir Kuntar.
“We prevented a major abduction attack,” Lt.-Col. Liran Hajbi, deputy commander of the Edom Division’s Sagi Brigade, which is responsible for the Egyptian border, said on Saturday. “They came heavily armed, with suicide bomb belts, grenades, and handcuffs.”
According to Hajbi, the terrorists were split into a number of cells, mostly deployed along the border and still inside Egypt.
Three terrorists who crossed into Israel were killed by soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance battalion and another five were killed in subsequent gunfights with the police’s Yamam Counterterrorism Unit.
“We were well-prepared,” he said. “While the beginning was bad with the murder of the civilians, the way the soldiers operated when they arrived on the scene prevented a more difficult outcome.”
Maj. Ro’i Yonatan, commander of the Golani Brigade’s Orev company, which was the first to arrive at the scene, said his soldiers acted courageously when driving straight into the line of fire and running over one of the terrorists.
“The soldiers then drove to the other end of the road, blocked it so Israeli cars would not approach and returned to draw the fire away from civilians,” Yonatan said.
He said St.-Sgt. Moshe Naftali – the soldier who was killed on Thursday, was shot when he and additional soldiers exited the jeep to begin engaging the terrorists deployed along the border.
“They were coming under fire from three different directions and they saw one of the terrorists throw a grenade at them,” Yonatan said. “They stopped the jeep, got out and Moshe got hit.”
Le'zekher challalei am yisrael......zikhronam liv'rakhah.
Speaking as an outside observer it looks like egypt just does not have the capacity or will to police the sainai. They cannot even protect their own police from their own citizens.
The egyptian military and police only have experience dealing with unarmed civilians.
Israel on the other hand has plenty of experience dealing with psychotic armed jihadists.
The answer is clear. If egypt does not have the capacity to keep the sainai under control and prevent attacks upon their neighbor then if falls to Israel to do what Egypt cannot.
The world has seen the dangerous mockery that has become of the empty promises of the arab spring. They won't do much more then make verbal complaints if Israel decides they have to be the only sane and mature player in this fiasco.
The pattern seen in this attack - Mohammedan mobsters murdering civilians and then ambushing the non-Muslim soldiers or policemen who respond to the initial attack - is similar to what we see a lot in Southern Thailand.
In effect, the murdered civilians are used as 'bait'.
Yes! Finally, the Mohammedans have come to deliver the devil's errand package that Mohammad or Mohammed)(ca. 26 April 570) started.
At that, many of us would like to see the smiling faces of all Western World citizens, converts to Islam, Politicians, Journalists and all traitors in all civilized societies, especially the United States of America. (Some sweet beer is making a round in the White House – No doubt)
Congratulation!!!s. (sic) to them all; as we all get closer and closer to the Truth.
Hostage taking, which is so prevalent among Muslims, is a direct result of the Koranic instructions to take captured infidels as booty.
Most non-Muslims have yet to understand that much of Islam is 'divinely' approved criminality of all kinds against non-Muslims.
The 'ethical' principles of Islam are unlike those of any other religion:
Murder, rape, theft, fraud, extortion, kidnapping, drug-dealing, child prostitution etc are only viewed as crimes when committed against fellow Muslims (the Ummah). Predatory attacks on infidels are OK, and have Allah's blessing when they are carried out as part of the global Jihad.
Islam is not so much a religion as an international criminal conspiracy. It has more in common with the Mafia than with Methodism. Like the Mafia loyalty to the mob trumps everything, and like the Mafia, once you've joined the only way out is death.
Here's more on the intrinsically criminal nature of Islam: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/razzia-or-ghazwa-muslim-raids-of-rape.html
It may be time for the Friends of Israel in various parts of the world to start planning **pro-Israel** rallies NOW.
Before the screaming mobs of Jew-haters can get off the ground, let the Israelis see large crowds of **friendly** people outside their embassies singing Ha Tikvah and holding up signs saying things like "We Understand", "Kick Jihadist Azz", "Do Whatever You Have to Do", "Israel Defend Yourself", "Don't Be Dhimmis". "Resist the Jihad". "Fight for Your Lives".
And fill the Israeli Ambassadors' in-trays, all around the world, with letters expressing condolences and intelligent encouragement. Let them know that there are citizens of the USA, Australia, Canada, India, UK, and many other places who understand - perhaps even better than some Israelis do - exactly what kind of war Israel is fighting: a war of self-defence, a war of national and civilisational survival against a barbaric and implacable enemy. Because if the ambassador in, say, Australia is deluged with several thousand letters from Aussie non-Jews saying that sort of thing, then if the Aussie government has the hide to dare to criticise Israel for its acts of self defence against those poooor, pooor 'Palestinians', the Israeli ambassador can turn right round and tip a sackful of letters into their lap and say - " look, X thousand of **your citizens** support what my country is doing".
(The same sort of thing could be done to express support for other countries on the front-line - for example, India, Thailand and the Philippines, and the newly-born South Sudan. When they suffer particularly nasty assaults from the Mohammedan thugs, whether from within or from across their borders, there should be crowds of people outside their embassies, expressing support for the victims and encouraging the governments of the affected countries to act decisively against the Jihadis).
I think you have a good idea, dumble...
I would also add that if someone sends a letter to the Israeli consulate, send a copy or a modification to your congressman, senator, to the President, and to the Presidential candidate of your choice. It is most important to Israel that the US head off any hint of international sanctions for any response that Israel might make.
By the way, I include Democratic candidates as well. There are reasonable, sensible Democrats as well as Republicans, and I think it is a mistake to try to associate support of Israel with just one party.
Driving into the line of fire and running over a barbarian.
Heh, I love these guys.
Also replying to RonaldB.
Both FANTASTIC ideas. The best I've heard in a long time. People really need to feel they can do something constructive in the face of what is happening in the world.
The only problem is that it is asking everyone to do a lot of legwork on their own. If people have to take time to look up addresses many will put it off.
If it was an organized and semi centralized effort with a central database of addresss to write to it would be far more successful.
One needn't put Every address in all in one go, just a link to an existing database that already has addresses of members of American state and federal legislatures. Addresses of embassies can be added as situations arise.
The sites that do call for action do a lot of other things too. Commentary, Theorizing, video posting, news aggragation, etc. On FB there are a zillion people calling for various actions and they drown each other out.
There should be one centralized site that ONLY has one daily call to action and links to related resources, background educational information etc. That should be the only thing it does.
It should be without direct affiliation with an identifiably conservative organization and be devoid of commentary outside of reader comments. Furthermore it should attract a politically and religiously ecumenical readership.
only 1 or two articles a day, even if it an update of the process or success of past or current calls to action - enough to keep people coming back every day but not so much that they don't have the time to take requested action.
It can be a call to action, an update on a past action, a link to a call to action posted somewhere else.
Is that a good idea or a bad idea?
if the arabs get their own state in Israel then it will be an act of war and Israel should blow the shit out of them
No such luck. Instead poor Jews are demonstrating in the streets of Jerusalem demanding Israel turned into a socialist welfare state. According to the BBC the Jewish protesters were inspired by the call for democracy in the Arabic Spring. They are just taking the call one step further and demand cut in the defense budget to finance social equality.
Can these attacks be considered an act of war?
Has the U.N. condemned these attacks?
Has Obama?
Truth,
If the process of contacting the WH,U.N.,Congress,Reps, and additional links to the article for complaints/e-mails were furnished,it may work.
You would need to make the site religion ,politics and culture free to some degree.
Other sites have campaign/complaint/petition e-mail links with articles.
Bread and water and nothing else. No yard (play) time for any Arab prisoner until the Israelis' soldier is returned to Israel in good shape. You think that's unfair. Maybe it is time to fight fire with fire, seems to be the only thing that some folks understand.